TEW2010 Developer's Journal

[Adam Ryland]

Welcome to the Total Extreme Wrestling 2010 Developer's Journal!

As announced on November 2nd, TEW2010, the fifth game in the series, is scheduled to be released in early 2010 via Grey Dog Software. The Developer's Journal is a feature we've run in the past to help launch games, and has proved very popular; basically, every single weekday you will get another entry in which I talk about one or more additions or alterations that have been made to the game. This helps build a picture of what you can expect when the game is released.

Before we begin, we'll start with a few Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: When will this be released and how much will it cost?
A: It is scheduled for release in early 2010. At the moment we are aiming for sometime between January and March, but this is a tentative schedule as the game is still in production. We will announce a more specific date a few weeks before the game is released. It will cost $34.95

Q: Do I get a discount if I have purchased TEW2008 or a previous Grey Dog game?
A: No.

Q: Is the game written from scratch?
A: No; TEW2010 is written on top of TEW2008. This is because the previous game has proven to be a very stable and popular engine, and so there is little point in reinventing the wheel. This also means that all the development time has been spent on improving the game, not on rewriting the basics.

Q: Will TEW08 databases be compatible?
A: Not directly, but TEW2010 comes with a converter that will update a TEW08 database to make it compatible. The converted databases will be instantly playable, although they may need some minor work to incorporate some of the new features.

Q: Will TEW08 save games be compatible?
A: No; although the game is written on top of TEW08, they are two entirely separate games.

Q: Does the game work on Vista \ x64 operating systems?
A: Yes, because it is based on TEW08 which does too.

Q: Will the game use ELicense security? If so, how many licenses do I get?
A: Yes it does use ELicense, and it will be one license as with all the previous TEW games.

Now, without further delay, let's begin...

[Adam Ryland]

Since TEW08 was released, whenever a potential new TEW game has been discussed on the forums there's always been talk about what is left to add; after all, TEW08 was pretty densely packed with features. TEW08 had over 100 major new additions and modifications from its predecessor TEW07, and I noticed that some people commented that there was no way that another 100 could be done in the jump from TEW08 to TEW2010. The good news is that I'm not one to turn down a challenge, and I can say that not only did we reach the target of 100 new major additions and modifications, we surpassed it by some margin....at last count, we had reached the 200 mark! Let's begin going through some of them...

#1: Drag And Drop Booking

A small feature, but one that will likely be extremely popular, TEW2010 will feature drag-and-drop booking for the first time.

For those of you not sure what this means, let me explain. As with TEW08, when booking a match you will have a list of available characters in the center of the screen, and a series of selection boxes from which to choose who is wrestling. In the previous games in the series, you would make your selection by scrolling through the drop-down boxes. In TEW2010, this process is now simplified; although you can still use the old method if you wish, you can also choose to simply highlight a character from the main list and then drag and drop his name into the box of your choice, automatically assigning him to that position. This makes booking a much more streamlined and user-friendly task.

And that's not all!

As an additional feature, when you drag and drop a tag team name the game will automatically fill in both of the individual members for you. This is especially useful if you have a heavily-populated tag team division and find it hard to keep track of who is available.

[Adam Ryland]

#2: User Preferences

Different people choose to play in different ways, and so the new User Preferences has been introduced to maximise your ability to customise the gameplay experience.

Each player in the game has access to their own User Preferences screen, from which they can enable or disable any of the fourteen choices. Below are eleven of the fourteen (the remaining three refer to features yet to be announced, and so will be discussed at a later date):

- Show all stats as grades rather than number (see note 1 below)
- Owner goals are turned on
- Penalties for small rosters are turned on
- Penalties for repetitive booking are turned on
- "Perfect Show Theory" is turned on
- Characters can become stale over time
- Worker morale effects are turned on
- Momentum effects are turned on
- Time limits on negotiations are turned on
- Advance bookings cannot be deleted
- Industry and economy effects are turned on

Any of these features can be turned on or off at any point during the game. These features only apply to situations directly related to the player in question; for example, if you turn off the industry and economy effects it means that you will not see workers looking for more money during "boom periods" when they are negotiating with you - however, it will still apply to AI promotions. This is because in multiplayer games, users can have contradictory preferences (i.e. one player can have the effects turned on while another has them turned off).

This feature replaces the more rigid Straight Edge vs Free Style choice that was in TEW08.

Note 1: If grades are turned off, all stats are shown as numbers on a scale of 0 to 100. They do not show percentages (i.e. you will see 1% and 2%, but not 1.5%). These numbers are graphical 50x50 icons, and so fit directly onto screens where grades are used.

[Adam Ryland]

#3: Narratives

A brand new never-before-seen feature, Narratives allow the database maker to introduce an element of storytelling to his game world.

In short, using the editor, the user can pre-set certain events to happen on specific days, along with the optional ability to create a story explaining the event that will appear on the in-game web site as well.

The available events are primarily split into three: game world, promotion and worker.

The game world events allow the economy and wrestling industry to be manipulated, such as creating a boom or recessions at a certain time.

The worker events allow many different things, including: have a worker "peak" in a certain stat, have him improve his personality or habits, or have him receive a popularity boost.

The promotion events allow such things as improving or reducing finances and altering popularity.

As an example, the user could choose to create a "Wall Street Crash II" for the last Friday in October 2010 - this could take the form of a story on the web site explaining that stock prices have fallen, complete with a picture of a panicked investor, and have all the Western economies plunge into a deep depression.

This feature is particularly useful for mod makers who are doing historic or fantasy-based databases.

(It should be noted that you cannot use the system to alter contracts; for example, you can't specify that Wrestler X will walk out on Promotion Y on a certain day. Also, narratives will be ignored if they don't make sense - for example, if you have one set up to have Wrestler X have a massive popularity boost from starring in a movie, but he has already died by that point, for obvious reasons the narrative won't be used.)

[Adam Ryland]

#4: National Trends

A new feature to the game is National Trends, which is another item designed to give the database maker as much control over his world as possible.

For every area in the game, the database maker has access to a Trend screen. This consists of the 12 Product Types used to define promotions (i.e. Traditional, Mainstream, Comedy, Cult, etc.), and four settings for each:

Starting Level: The level at which the type begins. The choices range from Very Unpopular to Very Popular.

Stability: Ranging from Very Stable to Very Unstable, this affects how often the levels change during the game.

Minimum Level & Maximum Level: As the name suggests, this limits how high or low the level can go.

For example, the database maker might decide that in Mexico, the Lucha Libre product type may start at Very Popular and have a minimum level of Very Popular too - guaranteeing that it will always be in fashion in that area. Or, he may make Comedy start as Unpopular in Japan, but be very unstable and have a minimum level of Very Unpopular and a maximum level of Very Popular - thus meaning that the popularity of Comedy will probably bounce around wildly over the years.

The level of each product type directly impacts the promotions that use them. So, for example, a promotion that is heavily biased towards a Traditional product would find that it struggles to draw crowds when that product type is Very Unpopular, but can sell out arenas when it is Very Popular. Therefore, these National Trends allow different promotions to flourish at different times - and it also means that clever promoters can tailer their products to try and capitalise on certain trends as they happen!

[Adam Ryland]

#5: The Dirt Sheet

The Dirt Sheet is a new idea for TEW. An optional feature, if enabled it takes the form of a small button that appears on-screen when each segment of the user's show is being displayed. Clicking it opens a pop-up window where you can see "behind the scenes" - basically, a list of every factor that has affected the grade that the segment received.

The list takes the form of positives and negatives. You can't see exactly how much of an affect each item has, but you can see exactly what has raised and lowered the grade. For example, the following might appear as part of a list for a match:

+ The Grappler got a bonus for excellent selling
+ The Grappler got a bonus for his hot gimmick
- The Grappler was having an off-night and did not perform at his best
- The Monster got penalised for working with a minor injury
- The match was penalised for being too long for the workers involved
+ The match benefited from having a hot crowd

This is useful both for newcomers to the series who want a better understanding of what is going on and what factors are relevant, and also for veterans who like to analyse every last thing down to the smallest detail. It is also useful if you have a surprising grade and want to find out what reasons are given for it being higher or lower than you expected.

The Dirt Sheet is available both for matches and angles, and does not replace the on-screen road agent notes which remain (if something is mentioned by the road agent it will almost always also appear in The Dirt Sheet anyway).

The ability to enable and disable The Dirt Sheet is one of the unannounced User Preferences mentioned in the second entry. It is disabled by default.

[Adam Ryland]

#6: User Talents

Adding a personal touch to the user experience, User Talents allow the player to give their avatar specific strengths and weaknesses for each game.

When starting a new game, the player has 20 points available to spend on four categories, each of which can run from 0 to 10 points (and start at 0, obviously). If a category is given 5 points, that is considered the default level and the player will therefore gain no advantages or disadvantages from that category. If the category is given more than 5 points the user will get positive benefits from that area, and on the flip side, being given less than 5 points means the user will get a negative effect from that category. Obviously, the higher or lower the score, the greater the effects.

The categories are:

Negotiating: A high negotiating score means that the user will find the patience bar during negotiations goes down slower, and workers will have be willing to accept slightly worse offers than they would otherwise do.

Motivating: A high motivation score means that the user has the ability to get his workers fired up, meaning they have less chance of having "off days" or not performing up to the best of their abilities.

Creativity: A high creativity score means that there is a better chance that turns and gimmick changes triggered by the user will go down well.

Leadership: A high leadership score means that the user has better control of the locker room, meaning worker morale and behaviour will be better.

Therefore the user has the choice of whether to take a balanced approach or to give himself strengths and weaknesses. He could give 5 points to each category, thus meaning that they are all at default and so the user would have no advantages or disadvantages, or he could choose to give one category a whole 10 points, making him fantastic in that area, but then have to weaken at least one other category.

The player will slowly gain more points as he progresses through the game, which he can then spend on improving categories.

[Adam Ryland]

#7: AI Event Booking Instructions

Fulfilling a popular request, TEW2010 now features the ability for specific AI-controlled events to be set to be booked in a certain way. There are five options that can be assigned:

- Entire show to be 1 vs 1 matches
- Entire show to be 2 vs 2 matches
- Entire show to be 3 vs 3 matches
- Entire show to be 4 vs 4 matches
- Show to feature a large battle royal match (default of 30 participants, reduced if the promotion does not have a large enough roster to support it)

This allows the real world Survivor Series and Royal Rumble scenarios to be simulated.

[Adam Ryland]

#8: Dirty Tricks

Returning to the series is the concept of Dirty Tricks. These allow you to use underhanded tactics to try and disrupt or hurt another promotion. They are only accessible if you are at war with the target.

There are six types of Dirty Trick available, with each one differing in terms of how likely it is to succeed, how much of an impact it will have, what the impact would be, and what the repercussions are if it backfires.

The choices are:

Plant Story: Plant a negative story about them in the wrestling media.

Web Shots: Use your web site to take shots at them in stories.

Openly Mock: Have your announcers and wrestlers take verbal shots at them during shows.

Sponsor Snipe: Contact their sponsors and leave anonymous negative rumours about them.

Disruption: Hire people to go to their shows and cause disruption with signs and chants.

Sign Language: Create and distribute signs during your shows that mock or insult them.

[Adam Ryland]

#9: Smart Retirements

A mini-alteration designed to increase realism, this feature means that workers who have a good job (i.e. are well paid and work for a decent sized promotion) will intentionally continue wrestling far longer than they otherwise would have in order to continue their career and make money. Essentially, it allows the worker's "default" retirement date to be pushed back.

Of course, this does not mean wrestlers will continue working indefinitely, it merely extends their career by several years - eventually they will still retire, regardless.

[Adam Ryland]

#10: Random Deaths

New to TEW2010 will be random deaths; these are occasional surprise events that are separate from the two types that are already in the game (drug-related deaths and natural old-age deaths) and can happen to anyone.

The frequency of these can be set via the Options menu, and includes the ability to completely switch them off, for those of a squeamish disposition.


As a special two-for-the-price-of-one Friday bonus, there is also a second, related addition to the game; gruesome "Kenny' deaths. These are Kenny-from-South-Park style fatalities, a nod to the old EWR series. If this is enabled, some of the above-mentioned random deaths will be of a bizarre nature. This feature can also be turned off via the Options menu.

---

Next week will will be a special "mod maker week" in the Dev Journal, as all five features discussed will be related to additions \ modifications that have been done to help people who make databases.

[Adam Ryland]

#11: Hiring Rules

Each promotion in the game can be given up to ten hiring rules. These are added by the mod maker via the editor, and are conditions that force the AI to only hire certain people.

The rules are selected from a pre-set list of about 50 possible choices. They range from age-related rules ("cannot hire anyone over 30", "cannot hire anyone under 21", etc) to style rules ("cannot hire luchadores", etc) to skill rules ("cannot hire anyone with less than D grade stamina", etc), amongst others.

These rules do not apply to human-controlled promotions, and only affect hirings, not re-signings. This feature allows the mod maker to focus a promotion's hirings to create a more realistic roster, such as making sure that a highly technical promotion never hires anyone who doesn't have at least decent mat skills.

[Adam Ryland]

#12: Multi Contract Add

A time-saving feature, Multi Contract Add allows the mod maker to select multiple workers from the database and have them assigned to a promotion; their contracts are then automatically created and filled in with the AI's "best guess" as to what the correct details are.

This cuts down on the time it takes for a mod maker to fill in a roster for a promotion by providing a solid base.

[Adam Ryland]

#13: Easy Skin

In order to make it easier for mod makers to create custom skins, two changes have been made.

The first is that the folder structure of the game has been altered so that all the parts that make up a skin (i.e. backgrounds, icons, etc) are within one folder (divided into subfolders for ease of use). This makes finding, identifying and modifying skins much easier.

The second alteration is that there is now an in-game skin changer, so moving from skin to skin only takes a couple of clicks. This means that the days of manually moving folders and files around are over.

Both changes together should make skin creation and distribution much easier.

[Adam Ryland]

#14: Multi Delete

Not a particularly exciting or earth-shattering feature, but one that will likely save mod makers a ton of time, the new Multi Delete is available in every section of the editor and allows multiple data items to be deleted at once.

[Adam Ryland]

#15: Title History Overhaul

Adding title lineages is one of the most time consuming parts of a mod maker's job, and so a few improvements have been made to make things easier.

The first is that you can now add title lineages directly from the Title editor section, rather than having to exit and go to the Title Lineages page (although you can still do that if you want).

The second is the addition of a "Save & Continue" button; this allows you to add an entry and automatically move on to the next one. This saves a lot of time, as it means the user does not have to keep entering and exiting screens for each title change.

This makes entering title lineages much easier and faster.

[Adam Ryland]

#16: Eras

A new feature is the concept of Eras. There are essentially "masks"; they are set to be applied between a certain start and end date, and when they are active they mask the game's default settings, replacing them with new versions.

Amongst the settings that an Era can alter are: Generated Fighters (increasing or decreasing their average size, altering the gender ratio, altering the ratio of styles to make brawlers more common, etc), Popularity Settings (altering the popularity of certain Product Settings in certain areas, much in the same way that the previously discussed Trends feature does), and miscellaneous things like altering the marriage and divorce rates or the average title reign length.

For example, the mod maker may create an Era called "Return Of The Roids" spanning January 2050 to March 2065 where it is set that wrestlers are bigger than normal, are more likely to take steroids, are more likely to be brawlers, less likely to be technical wrestlers, and that in America the Modern, Pure and Daredevil product types are less popular.

If no eras are available, the game uses its regular default settings for everything. Only one era can be active at a time.

[Adam Ryland]

#17: Outside Media Opportunities

If you are playing as a large promotion and have big name wrestlers on your roster, occasionally you will be contacted by various media outlets requesting interviews \ appearances by your stars. You can choose whether or not to accept the request.

For each appearance you will be able to see two ratings, Safety (how sympathetic the media outlet is, or how likely they are to intentionally try and embarrass the wrestler) and Exposure (how many people are going to see it).

Successful appearances can boost a wrestler (and maybe the promotion's) popularity, whereas a disaster can do the opposite.

[Adam Ryland]

#18: Regeneration

Taken from the WMMA series, Regeneration will feature in TEW2010. If set, a worker will regenerate when they leave the game world (via death or retirement); this means that their picture and basic details are used as the basis for a brand new rookie character who will appear a short time later. This potentially allows the game world to continue to evolve even long after the original set of wrestlers have all gone.

Each individual worker can be set whether they should regenerate or not via the editor.

The feature as a whole can be turned on or off via the Options menu.

[Adam Ryland]

#19: Agers

This is a new cosmetic feature that is aimed primarily at historical mods. Very simply, workers can have pictures assigned to them to appear when they hit certain ages.

For example, taking a real world example, if you were using a historical mod set in the 1980s you could have Hulk Hogan switch to a new picture every year, based upon his WrestleMania appearances, so that over time you'll gradually see him losing his hair before eventually switching to his Hollywood Hogan look.

The AI has certain checks attached to it to stop workers switching pictures at an inappropriate times (for example, if Hogan was currently working as Mr. America, the picture wouldn't swap as he is under a mask).

This is purely a cosmetic feature, but it is one for people who like completeness.

[Adam Ryland]

#20: Promotion Momentum

Promotions in TEW2010 will now have a momentum rating, similar to the one that wrestlers have. This value, visible on each promotion's profile, rises and falls over time.

Momentum will rise when good things happen, such as signing big name stars, putting on good shows, winning national \ regional battles, and so on.

Momentum will fall when bad things happen, like dropping in size, having an employee fail a drugs test, or being forced to cancel a show.

Being a measure of how "hot" a company is, the momentum value primarily affects how interested people are in the promotion (and therefore alters attendance levels), but is also used in some negotiations (i.e. a TV network may not want to deal with a promotion that is currently going nowhere).

[Adam Ryland]

#21: Predator Hiring

In previous games, AI-controlled companies look for new signings only when there are gaps to fill (whether due to people leaving, a change in owner \ booker, or an increase in size), which means that when they have a "full" roster they will not attempt to sign anyone else. New to TEW2010 is Predator Hiring, which means that the larger companies periodically look for available big name signings even when they already have a full roster. This is both more realistic and makes AI promotions more human in their logic.

[Adam Ryland]

#22: Angle Impact

Replacing the old "six minute" rule, whether or not an angle's ratings affects the show's overall rating is now defined via the database. Angles can either be Minor (does not affect the overall rating) or Major (does have an affect).

This allows for a more accurate simulation.

[Adam Ryland]

#23: Sticky Force Push

This is a simple alteration, but one that will almost certainly save a lot of people a lot of time. As the name suggests, this relates to the Force Push option. Currently, when using the Auto Push operation, you can set specific workers to keep their existing push - but this must be set each time. Sticky Force Push means that your selection is remembered, and those workers will keep their current push through every subsequent Auto Push until you unselect them.

As an example, this would allow you to use Sticky Force Push on every non-wrestler, meaning that only your active wrestlers would get changed around by using Auto Push.

[Adam Ryland]

#24: Sneaking Written Deals

New to TEW2010 will be the ability of Cult-sized promotions to sign workers to written deals, something that used to only be available to National-size and above. However, only promotions that are an "attractive prospect" to the worker in question will be able to achieve this.

To qualify as an "attractive prospect", a promotion must pass three tests. First, they must be financially stable - they must have a minimum of $7,000,000 in the bank. Secondly, they must be going places - they must have high momentum. Thirdly, the worker must like the feel of the place - this is a slightly more complex calculation where he will examine all the relationships that he has with members of the current roster and decide whether it would be a positive atmosphere or not. The user's Negotiation talent also comes into play here, as he can "talk up" the locker room to increase the chance of the worker wanting to come.

If all three of those tests are passed, the worker will be willing to accept a written deal.

This of course makes dirty tricks on Cult-level promotions slightly strategic, as pulling a stunt that lowers their momentum could conceivably stop them getting the advantage of being able to start offering exclusive deals.

[Adam Ryland]

#25: Sick Bumps

Returning to the game after a long absence are Sick Bumps. Available via the road agent notes, a worker can be asked to perform a highly risky and spectacular dive during a match - the upside is that it can add to a match's rating due to the memorable moment, the downside is that it greatly increases the chance of a legit injury happening.

Workers can refuse to take sick bumps, based on personality and situation.

[Adam Ryland]

#26: Booking Skill & Reputation

The Booking stat that existed in TEW08 now becomes two separate stats in TEW2010; Booking Skill and Booking Reputation.

Booking Skill is a measure of how good at booking the worker will be if he is used as the head booker of an AI promotion. The lower the number, the more unpredictable and dumb his decisions will be. This primarily affects two things; his signings (i.e. a low Booking Skill means he is more likely to sign poorer wrestlers) and his match making (i.e. a low Booking Skill means that he is more likely to have stupid decisions like having his biggest drawing stars lose to lower level workers), although it has smaller effects elsewhere. (It should go without saying, but this stat does not affect the player's avatar in any way, as clearly booking skill is based on how well you play the game.)

Booking Reputation is a measure of how well known the worker is for his booking, and therefore directly impacts who will hire him; it is the AI equivalent of the player's Reputation stat. A large promotion will only be interested in people with high reputations, regardless of how good at it they might be.

This combination allows the simulation of real-life people like Vince Russo (or at least the popular perception of him) where he is continues to get high profile jobs but is considered to not be a very skilled booker.

Both values can alter over time, based on performance and situation.

[Adam Ryland]

#27: Comedy Matches

A fairly quick addition to explain, there is now a seventh Match Style in TEW2010, Comedy. This works primarily on Entertainment factors, and is really only suited for promotions that have a heavy element of Comedy in their product.

[Adam Ryland]

#28: Smart Auto Push

In previous games a wrestler's push was based upon his average popularity in the company's home area. While this worked fine for large promotions, it could cause issues for smaller promotions who were limited to only a few regions.

This system has been improved in TEW2010 by way of a small but vital new block. Wrestlers are still pushed based on their average popularity in the company's home area, but only taking into account regions in which the company has at least 5% popularity (with the exception of the company's home region, which is always counted).

This works better as it means regional stars are handled more realistically. A wrestler who is only known in the Tri State region would have been unable to get a very good push anywhere under the old system as his average popularity would have been sunk by virtue of being unknown in almost all of the regions. Under the new system, that same worker could find work in a promotion that is limited to the Tri State \ East Coast regions as they wouldn't care about him being unknown elsewhere.

[Adam Ryland]

#29: Promotion Exclusive Venues

As the name suggests, promotions can now have their own exclusive venues, much like WWE being the only promotion who can run MSG. Having an exclusive venue means that no other promotion can run there (unless the promotion that owns the venue goes bankrupt), there is a slight increase to attendance levels when that venue is selected, and the crowd will be slightly hotter than normal.

[Adam Ryland]

#30: Forced Chemistry

For the first time, TEW2010 will allow Forced Chemistry - this is where chemistry between workers can be pre-assigned via the editor and will override what their chemistry would have been otherwise. All the types of chemistry that are available in the game can be pre-set, so this is also available for managers, broadcasters and tag teams.

As long-time fans of the series will already know, I am not a fan of this concept at all - primarily as previous discussions have shown that a lot of people do not grasp what chemistry actually is, and I can see a lot of mods becoming weighed down with enormous-and-poorly-done chemistry files - but I have included it for those who want to use it. The CornellVerse database will feature virtually no pre-set chemistry for this reason.

[Adam Ryland]

#31: Dojos

A new section has been added to the game, available via the taskbar, which will allow dojos \ training camps their own space. Accessing this screen will give information on the active dojos, including an Alumni list showcasing the graduates who have come from there.

This screen will also show a new piece of information that has been added to dojos, their head trainer; this person can be assigned via the editor before a game and can alter over the course of the game.

This section also allows the user to access controls for any dojo that is currently linked to the promotion he is controlling. These controls allow the player to alter the dojo's focus (thus changing what sort of workers are likely to come out of the dojo - there are now several more choices as to what the dojo's focus can be too) and also to assign or remove the head trainer.

[Adam Ryland]

#32: Dojos (2)

Dojos in TEW2010 can either be independent or promotion-aligned. With the latter option, the promotion has two advantages:

1 - As mentioned in the previous entry, the promotion has access to controls allowing it to alter the focus and head trainer of the dojo.

2 - The promotion gets "first refusal" on any graduates from the dojo. This works as follows: when a worker graduates (i.e. appears in the game world for the first time), the promotion gets a new Decision whereby they can choose to enter into negotiations or not (if they choose not to, the worker goes into the free agent pool as normal). This is an advance to the promotion as it means no other organisations have a chance to steal the worker first, and also the "graduate negotiations" are purposely easier than normal negotiations meaning that they can almost always get the graduate for a cheaper price than they would if he'd been taken from the free agent pool.

The "first refusal" workers for both human players and the AI.

[Adam Ryland]

#33: Network Settings

In order to allow for a more customisable and realistic game world, TV Networks have been altered so that their tolerances and preferences are now set via the editor rather than being built into the game itself.

The options available to change include: Minimum Fed Size, Minimum Popularity, Minimum Prestige, and Total Number Of Shows Allowed. So, for example, you could set a network who will not deal with promotions who are below National, below 40% popularity across the US, or below 70% prestige, and will only have one wrestling show at a time.

The default settings for any network are exactly the same as the settings that were in TEW08, so mod makers do not need to spend ages getting every network perfect - leaving them in their default state will work perfectly well.

The network's Product Definition Preferences are also editable, so you could set the network to be highly against promotions that have a heavy amount of Risque in their product, but highly in favour or those that use heavy amounts of Lucha Libre, for example.

[Adam Ryland]

#34: Critical Hit \ Critical Miss

Some workers who debut via an angle are eligible for potential Critical Hit and Critical Miss bonuses.

A Critical Hit is an especially good debut, where the worker instantly has the crowd eating out the palm of his hand, perhaps breaking out a catchphrase that instantly becomes over (a la "Austin 3:16") or cutting the promo of a lifetime.

A Critical Miss, also known as The Shockmaster Effect, is where the worker messes up big time; tripping over the set, forgetting his lines, standing in the wrong place, getting somebody's name wrong...etc, etc.

These bonuses are to simulate that a debut is a special moment that has greater significance than a normal angle. They are not common occurrences, but will happen from time to time.

[Adam Ryland]

#35: Quick Negotiate

In order to speed up the user's day-to-day play, there is now a Quick Negotiate button located as part of the main Characters screen. This does exactly the same thing as the Negotiate button found in the character's profile, but eliminates the need to load up a worker's profile at all. So, if you are skimming through the list of workers and see someone you like you can just hit Negotiate straight away.

[Adam Ryland]

#36: AI Promotion Relationships

In a small change that has a big effect, AI-controlled promotions in TEW2010 are now able to handle their own promotion relationships. This means that rather than always waiting for the player to make moves, they can create new relationships (with the player or other AI feds), alter existing ones, or even start wars. This is almost entirely done via the owner's personality and preferences, and so means that the choice of owner can have a huge impact on how a promotion interacts with others.

[Adam Ryland]

#37: Chemistry Store

Every time the user finds another example of chemistry between two workers it is added to the Chemistry Store; this is a separate screen, available in multiple places throughout the game, that lists all the different chemistry that that player has found. It is searchable (by worker and type, and by default will only show those items that are relevant to the promotion in question), therefore allowing the user to quickly find the information he needs.

This helps speed up the user's booking as it negates the need to go into individual workers bios, and is also more user friendly.

[Adam Ryland]

#38: Bidding Wars

Taken from WMMA2, TEW2010 will feature Bidding Wars. This means that a worker can accept negotiations with up to three different promotions at once, and they all take part at the same time. This allows for a proper battle of offer and counter-offer, and makes for a more realistic experience as the biggest promotion no longer has a definitive advantage when it comes to getting whoever they want.

As with WMMA2, bidding wars can only feature one human player per negotiation.



Please note that the journal will be suspended over Christmas. The remaining two entries for this block of five will appear on the 29th and 30th of December, and the journal will then revert to the normal five-a-week as of January 4th.

[Adam Ryland]

#39: Customisable Angle Auto Name

In previous games, when using the Auto Name function during the booking of an angle the segment would simply be named after the angle. So, if the angle was called "1 vs 1 Backstage Beatdown", that's exactly what the segment name would become.

In TEW2010, the Auto Name text is customisable via the editor, using the same style and symbols that are also used for creating the angle's output (i.e. "$S1" meaning "the short name of participant 1"). So, as an example, if you were booking the "1 vs 1 Backstage Beatdown" angle and using Steve Frehley and Remo, pressing Auto Name would result in the segment name becoming "Remo beats down Frehley backstage".

The advantages of this are obvious. Firstly, booking angles is quicker as you don't have to write each segment name. Secondly, the booking sheet becomes far more user friendly, as the name of each segment becomes much more descriptive as to what is actually taking place and (more importantly) who is involved. Thirdly, when viewing your promotion's history, you get a much clearer view of what happened - obviously if you were viewing a show from four years ago it is much clearer to read "Remo beat up Frehley" than "1 vs 1 Beatdown", as the latter gives no indication as to who was involved.

All the default angles in the Cornellverse come with custom Auto Name text.

[Adam Ryland]

#40: Locker Room Morale

This feature is based on the "Backstage" concept first introduced in TEW08 but takes it to the next level, turning it into one of the most key parts of the new game. The general idea is that managing your backstage environment is now just as important as how you handle your on-screen product.

Your promotion's locker room morale is calculated via three sections. Relationships (as with TEW08, this is done by looking at the Relationships file for workers you currently employ), Personalities (done by looking at each worker's personality), and Other Factors (a new section that keeps track of anything else that can affect morale - this can range from positives like a recent good show or a big name signing to negatives like losing a major star or two wrestlers getting into a fight). All these different factors are considered and used to create an overall rating which is shown on-screen as an "energy bar" type graphic.

The reason this is so important is that the overall locker room morale now has a big impact on how workers perform and behave. If you let it get too low, you will begin to encounter problems; the wrestlers will be unmotivated and won't perform as well as they could, more backstage incidents will happen as stressed workers end up in fights or no-showing events (which of course has the knock-on effect of lowering the locker room morale even more...), and a general downward spiral will begin. Therefore, not paying close attention to your locker room can actually cause just as much damage as a poor in-ring product, as WCW found out in real life.

This feature also (intentionally) leads to interesting dilemmas and strategy decisions for players. For example, if your best worker is also a locker room cancer, is he worth keeping around? You would have to weigh up whether his contribution to the promotion is worth him potentially causing everyone else to under-perform due to the trouble and stress he causes. Similarly, is it worth hiring in Superstar X, one of the biggest names in wrestling, if there are several members of the roster who already hate him - is the boost he provides worth alienating half your locker room? Or, on the flip side, if you had a choice between two wrestlers is it worth hiring the slightly worse one because he is popular and a good influence backstage? As a whole, this feature means there are a lot more factors and effects to consider when dealing with your locker room.

This is one of the most important fundamental changes in the game, as it completely alters the way you have to think about things. This entry has just been an overview of the main concept; next week we will be looking at some of the related features that come into play as a result of it.

[Adam Ryland]

#41: Morale Overhaul

The morale system that applies to every worker has been given a complete overhaul to make it more realistic. As before, you will be able to see a worker's current morale via the Talk To Worker screen and whether he is happy or not can impact his in-ring performance, but this will now also affect the overall locker room morale too; a worker who is considered a Positive Influence obviously raises the locker room morale, but if he becomes unhappy he can lose that (and even go all the way to become a Negative Influence if he is unhappy enough), and likewise a Negative Influence can be countered (or reversed) if that worker is very happy.

New to the system is the concept of "timed morale". What this means is that incidents no longer happen, raise or lower morale, and then disappear like they did in previous games. Instead, they are stored and have long term effects. For example, if you fire a worker's best friend he may become Furious. Six months later he may still be unhappy, but have downgraded to Angry. Three months later he may be down to simply Annoyed, and so on until the incident has been forgotten. The length of time (and level of unhappiness) will depend on the situation and the worker's personality.

What this means is that you have to be careful how you handle people over time. Jobbing out Worker X may only annoy him normally, but if he's still smarting over you a fine you gave him six months ago then it could tip him over the edge and make him fully angry. Alternatively, as very angry workers won't want to negotiate with you, you may find yourself postponing certain decisions until after you've signed a wrestler to a long-term contract in order to avoid losing him. In another situation, you may find it beneficial to give a worker a big victory in order to boost his morale and "negate" the effects of something you're going to do that will upset him. As a whole, this adds to the overall strategy and man management side of the game.

On top of all this, the Talk To Worker screen now also includes a Morale button; clicking this will bring up a pop-up window where you can see exactly what incidents have contributed to the worker's current morale level.

[Adam Ryland]

#42: Worker Rewards

Tying into the new morale system is the ability to give workers rewards to help manage them. There are two types:

Bonus Payments: This is simply a cash payment made to the worker, with the amount selectable via the user. Obviously, the higher the amount, the happier the worker will be. It can create a balancing act though, as other stars may become jealous if you are giving large amounts of cash to one particular person.

Time Off: This option allows you to give a worker some time away from the promotion, either to heal or to take a vacation. This is only available to workers under a written deal, and has the caveat that once a worker has been given time off you cannot recall him until the specified period of time is over - this is for the obvious reason that otherwise the system could be abused.

These two options allow a helping hand when it comes to maintaining and controlling the morale of your locker room.

[Adam Ryland]

#43: Backstage Rules

When in control of a promotion you now have the ability to lay down Backstage Rules. These are your "locker room laws", and affect how the backstage area is run and what is on offer.

Amongst the rules available are: no drugs \ alcohol \ smoking backstage; all workers must arrive three hours before the show starts; the promotion will provide catering \ a masseuse \ a chiropractor; the promotion will organise \ pay for transport and accommodation. (Obviously some of these will result in increased costs for the promotion if activated.)

This opens the way for distinct paths in how you want to be seen. A harsh set of backstage rules may lower morale as a whole but prevent overly bad behaviour, whereas a relaxed set of rules may create a better atmosphere but run the risk of the occasional over-the-top moment. It also can affect individual morale; a locker room full of smokers would probably not be happy if you banned smoking.

As a whole, this feature allows you one more tool in your arsenal for dealing with the backstage area.

[Adam Ryland]

#44: Event Logos

In an often-requested cosmetic change, TEW2010 will support logos for specific Events as well as TV shows. These will show up in the Internet section when a show is being reported on, as well as during the booking process.

For those who wish to make a start on CornellVerse \ Real World event logos in advance, the dimensions are exactly the same as promotion and TV logos.

[Adam Ryland]

#45: Media Group \ Network Umbrella

A Media Group is a new concept which is essentially a grouping of TV Networks to show that they are all owned by the same parent. There are two reasons for this alteration. The first is that this allows the game to handle the movement of TV shows better. For example, if you have a show being broadcast on Sky Sports 3 and want to move it to Sky Sports 1, the AI can take into account that they're not actually rivals, even if they show in the same regions. The second reason is explored in the next entry.

#46: TV-Driven Promotions

Based on the real life Wrestling Society X, this new feature allows a promotion to be owned by a specific TV Network or Media Group. When this is the case, several special conditions are invoked. Firstly, the promotion cannot gets it TV shows broadcast anywhere else, but it does have a much easier time of getting (and maintaining) TV deals on its parent network(s) than normal promotions would. Also, if the promotion ever loses its TV deal, the network can choose to close them down (even if they aren't losing money). Obviously it's a bigger advantage to be owned by a Media Group than an individual TV Network, as it allows for a wider range of potential broadcasters.

[Adam Ryland]

#47: Data Exporters

This is actually several additions grouped into one, but to summarise there are now several places where you can activate Data Exporters; these allow TEW data to be sent to an external spreadsheet file that can be read by Microsoft Excel (*).

You can find Data Exports in most of the editor sections, a version in the Options menu that allows you to customise what is exported, and another in your own Roster screen that exports all data relating to the human-controlled promotion.

The advantage of this is that it allows statistically-minded players to play with the data to their heart's content using the in-built functions that Excel provides.

NB: You cannot import data back the other way, due to the fact that it's too hard to guarantee data integrity.

(*) The files are in .xls format, but can be read by any spreadsheet program that is able to handle that sort of file, not just Excel. Other formats are not supported.

[Adam Ryland]

#48: Divisions

The concept of roster divisions returns to the series for the first time in a while, albeit in a different format.

Divisions are essentially an extra level of organisation; they have no effect outside of helping the player organise and search his roster.

From the Roster screen, the user can assign divisions. As oppose to the old version where you could type in any division name you wanted, TEW2010 has an in-built selection of 30+ different names (including names like Hardcore, Divas, Veterans, Luchadores, and Invaders). This has been considered a better way of handling them as it is much quicker for the computer to handle when searching (as it doesn't have to first read through the entire roster to find all the possible choices) and also eliminates common problems like spelling mistakes. It is a simple task to add further divisions to the game (and would not require a save game be restarted), and so further requests for additions will be taken once the game is released.

Each worker can be assigned to one division, or none at all. Divisions appear in all the search filters, including in the booking area, so can be used to quickly subdivide your roster.

[Adam Ryland]

#49: Gimmick Type Effects

New to TEW2010 is the concept of having gimmick types be loaded with specific effects, benefits, and negatives. The idea behind this is to make gimmicks deeper.

Of the 12 gimmick types, 6 have some sort of in-built effect(s) which impact how they should be booked. They are:

BRUTE: Workers using this gimmick get greater bonuses when booked to look dominant, but higher penalties when losing to Comedy or Gimmicky gimmick types.

COOL: Workers using this gimmick will find that wins and losses have a greater impact on popularity and momentum changes than normal.

COMEDY: Workers using this gimmick take less damage to their popularity from losses, but will be penalised when used in an upper midcard or main event role in promotions that do not have a heavily comedic product.

C0CKY: See Cool.

LEGIT: See Brute.

REALISTIC: Workers using this gimmick get higher penalties when losing to Comedy or Gimmicky gimmick types..

[Adam Ryland]

#50: Investments

The user, when employed, will have access to the Investments screen in TEW2010; this allows him to spend some of the promotion's money in one of four areas:

Development Territory: The promotion can spend money to create their own brand new development territory (the parent company must be of at least Cult size to access this option). The bigger the territory, the more money is required. Once created, the territory is handled in exactly the same way as any other child promotion.

Dojo: The promotion can spend money to set up their own private dojo, with the quality dependent on the amount of money being spent. The user can set everything about the dojo, from its name and logo to where it is situated.

Venue: The promotion can spend money to create their own private venue, which is then only accessible by them. The bigger the venue, the more money is required to purchase it.

Defunct Title: The promotion can spend money to purchase the title belts off promotions that have since closed. The higher the prestige of the belt, the more money it costs. Once a belt has been purchased, it becomes the property of the user's promotion. The difference between this and simply creating a new belt as normal is that the purchased belt retains all its history (i.e. its lineage).

[Adam Ryland]

The Best Of The Rest

To finish this year's development journal we will go through a list of the remaining features that haven't yet been highlighted. This is not a full list of everything that has been added or changed in TEW2010, just the features that are worthy of a small write-up.

--

Easier Roster Control: All the major roster controls (disposition, gimmicks, manager, etc) have now been made more user-friendly by the addition of an on-screen in-window list of employees; this means that rather than having to open a new window for each person you want to alter, which means a lot of entering and exiting, you can simply keep the same window open and use the list to move between people.

Owner Preference: When a new owner takes over a promotion, they can now alter the company's product, based upon their own preferences. This can be a lot of fun, as it can drastically alter how a promotion acts. The change is not immediate, but happens over the course of several months. Of course, given the already-announced Minimum and Maximum product values, an owner does have some restrictions in place and so cannot (usually) completely overhaul a promotion to the point that it becomes unrecognisable. As an addition to this, there are now far more selectable owner preference's available, not just the four tick boxes from TEW08.

Losing Stars: Having a big star leave, especially if he is stolen, now has a much bigger impact, affecting both momentum and morale. This makes it a tougher call to let a big name worker go due to money issues. On the flip side, hiring a big star has the opposite effect.

Huge Demands: The very biggest names now have the ability to see their worth and make much bigger demands than anyone else, as they take into account how irreplaceable they are.

Copycat Negotiations: Workers can now make their demands based upon the contracts of their peers. For example, if you give Worker A a massive wage and creative control because you wanted to give him an incentive to sign a long-term deal, Worker B (assuming he is at the same sort of level as A) may demand the exact same treatment when you negotiate with him. This means contract negotiations become more strategic, as you have to take into account the "snowball" effect - i.e. if you give one person creative control, you may have to end up giving out a rash of them.

Money Talks: Workers are now more willing to bend on contract negotiations if offered ridiculous amounts of money to compensate them.

Masks: New to the series, TEW2010 gives the option for workers to be masked. People can be masked or unmasked during the game (including after matches using a new Unmask road agent note), masks can be owned by workers or promotions, workers can have multiple masks in use (to simulate different characters in different promotions), and the prestige of a mask can increase over time.

Hair: Workers have a hair statistic, which keeps track of the length. This is set via the editor, and obviously allows for bald wrestlers. This stat is used in conjunction with a new Shave Head road agent note that allows wrestlers to lose their hair. Once shaved, hair can grow back slowly over time. Wrestlers will also eventually start going naturally bald as they age.

Mexican Lingo: When viewing a lucha libre promotion, faces and heels are called tecnicos and rudos. This is purely cosmetic.

Disposition Clarity: For clarity, promotions that don't have a disposition split no longer reference faces and heels on their roster screen. This is purely cosmetic, but does help users who may be confused as to which promotions use them.

Intensity and Danger: The Intensity and Danger levels can now be altered on a match-by-match basis, rather than always being the promotion's default level. This allows for the user to better control what is going on, such as intentionally lowering the levels in a match between two injury-prone stars to try and lessen the chance of them hurting each other.

Event Ratings: It is hard for large promotions in TEW08 to maintain popularity in regions in which they have high overness as it's simply very hard to do shows with high enough ratings. New tolerances have been introduced in TEW2010 to address this.

Eleventh Personality Trait: A new personality trait, Conservative-Liberal, is now in.

More Refusals: Workers are now far smarter about being able to refuse \ complain about bookings. This includes being able to refuse certain segments due to their content and also to refuse overly-physical matches if they are carrying injuries or are too banged up to compete properly.

Moral Objections: Workers with strong moral characters can reject promotions that want to hire them if the company has a strongly risque product.

PM Incidents \ Increased Incidents: Not only are there now more potential Incidents (events involving your employees that you need to handle) that can happen, but there is now a new category; PM Incidents. These happen in PM mode before a show and include events that can alter your booking, such as workers not showing up at all. Furthermore, there are now also far more positive Incidents available, as oppose to the almost entirely negative ones that were in TEW08.

Angle Reduction: The number of angle categories has been vastly reduced by grouping the existing versions into more wide-ranging versions. This is to help make storyline writing easier and to generally make the game more user-friendly.

Floating Titles: A fourth level of title has been added, "Floating". This means that the title is not stuck in a specific role, but moves depending on the title's current prestige. This allows a belt to evolve along with whoever holds it, and to play different roles depending on what is needed.

Brand Priority: The user can now set brands to be either Major or Minor. A minor brand is different because it will have less people in it and will only feature workers of Midcard or below (mostly, there can be some exceptions). This allows the way that ECW is a minor brand compared to Raw and Smackdown in reality.

Bulk Brand Switch: To save time, bulk switches of workers from one brand to another can now be handled via a special screen. This eliminates the need to do it individually.

Under 16: Workers can now be added to the game world down to as low as 5 years old. There are checks and blocks in place to stop odd things happening (like them getting married) and so that there stats don't become incredible due to the "extra time" they get in the game world.

Filter By No Push: You can now filter by "Push = None", allowing new signings to be quickly identified. You can also now filter by active competitors and non-competitors, for ease of use.

Spiteful Workers: Unhappy workers with poor personalities can intentionally cause trouble, not just backstage but also in the ring. This can take the form of them intentionally and blatantly under-performing to make a point.

Request Release: Unhappy workers under a written deal can now pro-actively request that you grant them a release.

Expanded Match Reports: Match reports have been expanded slightly to reference the split between crowd heat and ring action. This helps the player spot where the strengths of a specific match lie.

Booking Match History: When booking, there is now a button to view the match history between the competitors.

Dojo Creation: Workers, upon retirement, have the ability to create their own dojos, which then remain active until the worker leaves the business. Whether a worker is a potential trainer is calculated via his stats and personality.

Monthly Shows: The option to have a monthly show has been added.

One-Off Shows: The option to have one-off shows has been added. These are the same as normal events, except that after they have been held their "next held" date is set to be blank (as oppose to being automatically extended) and the event remains dormant until the player decides to bring it back.

TV Moving: The TV system has been improved to allow a show to be moved between networks without needing to allow its original contract to expire first.

Fourth Show: Huge promotions can now have up to four shows, an increase from the TEW08 upper limit of three.

Wear And Tear: The entire wear and tear system has been overhauled to be more realistic, including things like a worker's speed and aerial prowess being lowered as his knees get in worse and worse shape. Furthermore, wrestlers can now lose health over time just from being banged up in matches, as oppose to the TEW08 system where you only lost health via injuries.

Owners Involved In Pacts: Your owner will now be more hands-on when it comes to pacts, being able to block certain moves (such as preventing you from going to war if he feels it's a bad move).

Numerals: Events now have the option of having numerals after their name, not just numbers or the year.

Save Game Info: When in the Load or Delete Game menus, basic information about the highlighted save game is shown at the bottom of the screen to help the user identify it.

Copy Save Game: The Load Game screen now includes a Copy button, which allows a save game to be quickly copied. This saves having to do it manually.

Spreadsheet-Style Roster: There is now a button in the Roster screen that will allow you to view your promotion in a spreadsheet-style fashion.

Contract Overview: There is now a Contract Overview button on the Roster screen, which allows you to view everybody's current contract details in a spreadsheet-style format, rather than needing to view everybody individually.

Champion Icon: When viewing a roster, anybody who holds a belt in that promotion will be identified via a "title belt" icon that appears next to their name.

Fatigue View: The Medical screen now has a further list to show who is suffering from Fatigue, something that was difficult to establish in TEW08.

Alter Ego Icon: When viewing your roster, an on-screen prompt shows if that specific character has any alter-egos available for use.

Camera Skills: A seventh set of quick stats, Camera Skills, has been added for workers. This is made up of Sex Appeal, Menace and Star Quality. This appears at the bottom of each roster screen, alongside the existing skills like Rumble, Technical, and so forth.

Popularity View: There is now a switch at the bottom of each roster screen, allowing you to swap between the traditional "skill" view and a "popularity" view that gives the worker's average overness in each game area.

Expanded Filters: Many of the filters have been expanded to include new choices, including the ability to search for Menace and for workers who can specifically work as babyfaces or heels.

New Game Tour: When starting a new game and picking a promotion, there is access to a Tour button; this gives a brief overview of the promotion for people who may not be familiar with them, such a talking about who their big stars are, what TV capability they have, etc. This helps people get a handle on what a promotion is about without having to pour over their roster first.

Mass Relation: As a time saver, the editor now includes a Mass Relation button; this allows you to input all the members of a family and have the game create all the necessary relationship links.

Mass Edit: There is now a Mass Edit button in the worker editor, which allows some stats to be edited for lots of people at once. One example if that you can now set all the bald workers at once via this feature, rather than having to go into each record individually.

Previous EOY: Via the editor, you can now set the winners of previous End Of Year awards from before new games start.

Injury Frequency: Via the Options menu, the user can now select how often injuries should occur.

Injury Eras: Injuries can now be set to only happen within certain time frames, meaning that historical (or even future) injuries can be better simulated.

Tag Improvements: Tag team matches generally get lower ratings than singles in TEW08 due to the fact there are simply more opportunities for penalties to be incurred because there's more people involved. This has been addressed in TEW2010, with loosening on the penalties so that the ratings will be more in line with singles bouts of a similar quality.

Multi Tag Tolerance: In multi-man tag team matches, there is now more tolerance regarding complaints about losing; a main eventer, for example, will be OK with his team losing if the team-mate taking the fall happens to be a lower midcarder and the winning team is of an appropriately high level.

Mandatory Owner(s): Each promotion can now have up to three Potential Owners (up from just one in TEW08), and furthermore these can now be set as Mandatory or Preferred. If set as mandatory, the promotion cannot open unless one of the three specified owners is available at that time.

Stable Description: Each stable can now have a small text description linked to it to say what it is about; this is the same as how each worker has a profile.

Easy Tag Name: When creating a new team, the AI can now check their existing teams and come up with an appropriate name. This saves time for the user.

Event Specials: You can now specify things like the creation of special sets or the hiring or musical acts for certain events, in order to give them a special feel.

Death While Employed: If a worker dies while employed by somebody, that promotion can be hit with extra punishments such as momentum loss as journalists start to point the finger at the promotion. This is especially true if the promotion has no drug policy in place. Morale will also be impacted by a worker dying while under contract.

Quick Save Gimmick: When assigning gimmicks, you can now quickly clone an existing gimmick and make small changes to it, creating a brand new one. This is more user friendly and stops the user having to exit the game, import a new gimmick, and then go back in.

Quick Save Alter Ego: When altering an employee's character you now have the option to quickly save it as a new alter ego, so that it can be used in the future.

Second Alter Ego Option: Alter-Egos can now be edited directly from the Worker editor, rather than having to exit and go to the correct section.

Easier Alter Ego Editing: There is now a Default button in the Alter Ego section, which automatically imports the specified worker's default details for editing. This saves a lot of copying and pasting.

Contract Alter Ego: When editing contracts there is now a button that allows the details to be filled in with those from a specific alter ego.

Area Alter Egos: Alter egos can now be set to apply to all promotions within a specific game area. For example, you could have an alter ego that is set to apply to "All Mexican". This saves having to duplicate an alter ego multiple times for every possible promotion.

Quick Move Set: A quick move set can now be created directly from the worker editor, saving the need to exit out, go into the move set editor, then come all the way back.

Post-Show Segments: Matches and Angles can now be set as Post Show, which is the same as the existing Pre Show except, obviously, it means they happen after the main event has been done. This is purely for realism.

Cherry-Picking Events: When taking over a promotion, you can now take specific events of theirs as well as workers and titles. This is similar to the way the real-life WWE took WCW events like the Great American Bash.

Venue Sizes: Venue sizes can now be given as specific numbers rather than just size values, allowing for greater variation.

Most Falls: The Most Falls match finish can now apply to matches with more than two sides, helping to simulate Scramble matches.

More Handicap Matches: There are now more variations of the handicap match, including 1 vs 3 and 2 vs 4.

Slow Build: There is a new road agent note called Slow Build that specifies that the workers should pace themselves and gradually work towards a big finish.

No Contest: There is a new no-contest option, "Sports Entertainment Finish"; this is the infamous ending where everything breaks down into chaos and no official decision is rendered.

Shoot Interviews: Unhappy workers may disrupt angles by adding in unscripted shoot comments if they have a microphone time.

Achievements: Available via the front page is the new Achievements screen; this contains many different tasks such as "Run an A* Show" and "Win Promotion Of The Year" that get ticked off as you play. This is to give players something else to aim for as they play. The achievements are game-wide, so you can complete different tasks under different save games.

Women's Division: Women's divisions can now be added or removed from the Control Room, therefore eliminating the need to use the editor.

Corporate Stability: Long running promotions get the advantage of corporate stability, which means that banks are far more tolerant of debt because of the promotion's long history. This makes them harder to bankrupt.

Show Analysis: The show analysis feature has been improved to not only show who hasn't been used, but also what their disposition is and when they were last used. Furthermore, it also calculates the current wage expense based on what has been booked.

Greater Live Editing: The "live" \ in-game editor allows far more items to be edited than in TEW08.

More Importing: The "live" \ in-game importer has been improved to allow more items to be accessed.

Import Filter: The importers, both in the regular editor and live editor, now come equipped with filters.

Easier Job Seeking: It is now far easier for the user to get hired when he is unemployed, especially for low-level jobs. This is to stop players from being left out for long periods of time if they lose their jobs elsewhere.

Known Habits: All of a worker's habits are now set as either being Known or not. Habits become known if they get referenced in an Internet story (or if the worker fails a drug test). Only known habits are shown in a worker's profile and can be blocked via owner goals; this is more realistic, and also allows "secret" drug users to end up on your roster and cause you trouble in the future.

Spill Over: The code that is used to handle popularity spill over (when reaching a certain level in one region \ area causes popularity to be created in related regions \ areas) has been improved to be more realistic, particularly in regards to Japan.

Pact View: You can now view a promotion's current pacts via its profile (this information was invisible in TEW08).

Development Focus: The user can now select a specific focus for a worker when you send him down into the development territories; targeting a specific skill is slower but reaps better benefits, while giving a more general focus is faster but has less impact.

Quick Angle Edit: When booking, the user now has a Clone button; this allows him to quickly make a replica of the existing angle and make changes to it, creating a brand new angle in the process. This is very useful if you want to make minor changes on-the-fly. Furthermore, there is a "delete after use" check box that can be ticked; if used, the new angle will be removed after the show has been run. This is very useful if you are creating a special angle that you will never use again, as it stops the angle file getting clogged up with garbage.

Quick Match Add: You can now create a new match type very quickly while in game by cloning an existing one; this saves the user having to exit out and come back.

Quick Shortlist: There is now a shortlist button on the Characters screen, eliminating the need to go into each worker's profile.

Shortlist All: A button that allows all the workers currently listed to be shortlisted at once has been added to the Characters screen.

Retirement Warning: The traditional one month retirement warning period has been increased in TEW2010.

Clearer Folders: The folder structure for TEW2010 has been altered to be much clearer, making things easier for people who wish to install mods and picture packs.

Test Angle Commentary: The angle editor comes equipped with a "Test" button that allows the user to see how the commentary will look when used with real names. This allows easier spotting of errors.

Handy Discipline Log: When dealing with Incidents there is now a new "Discipline Log" button that shows your previous dealings with the worker in question. This stops you having to exit the screen to find the information and then come back again.

Trade Amount: When bringing somebody in on a trade the AI will now calculate a fairer wage amount, rather than the TEW08 system of having to pay their monthly fee each time.

AI Location Selection: The AI's venue \ region selection code has been vastly improved to be more intelligent, particularly in regards to large promotions aggressively stopping themselves from falling to Cult.

Remote Assistance: Taken from WMMA, the Remote Assistance feature is in the Options menu and allows common-fixes to be done via the use of codes.

Hall Of Records \ Top 10s: Via the promotion profile, you can now view a selection of Top 10s for that company, including lists like Top Matches, Top Attendance Levels, etc, etc.

HOI Tracker: When viewing workers, it will show in their profile how close they are to entering the Hall Of Immortals. This is a nice way of letting the user get a sense of how legendary the character is regarded as being.

Ageing Divas: The way that female managers \ personalities are handled as they grow older, particularly in regards to their looks and how long they can expect to stay on a roster, has been tweaked to be more realistic.

Ageing Luchadores: To be more realistic, luchadores will now wrestle longer than normal, simulating the "keep going until you drop" mentality that is present in reality.

Starting Values: The mod maker has the optional ability to set contract values for specific people. If set, these override the values that the game would normally create upon the creation of a new game.

Starting Storylines: Via the editor, storylines can be set up that are in place when the game begins. This is useful for mod makers who are creating a database for a specific moment in time.

Filter Independent Shows: The new ticker can now be filtered to show the results of independent shows.

Sorted PPV Summary: Via the Media screen, the PPV Summary list can now be filtered so that it is more useful.

Opening Variance: There is a new option that allows a new game to be started with a small amount of variance added or removed from each worker's skills. The impact is not enough to greatly change any worker, but the small amount of variety can help make the first few days of each game more different.

Converter: There is a TEW08->TEW2010 converter included in the editor, which turns an old database into a new one.

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That completes the developer's journal. Remember, the trial version of TEW2010 will be available on the 20th, with the retail version available for purchase on the 25th.